This invention relates to document storage files, and more particularly to such files which are adapted to removably secure a wide variety of types of document to a suspension filing system.
Suspension filing systems are well known. A commonly encountered system of this type is the so-called center hook filing system, which in its simplest form comprises a single horizontal support bar to which appropriate files provided with hooks and designed to accommodate the documents to be filed may be detachably secured. Such filing systems have found wide use, particularly in the filing of large format items, such as computer printouts, flow diagrams, program listings, and the like, and a wide variety of storage files have been devised to accommodate different materials to such suspension filing. Thus, for instance, stationary materials may be secured by a modified post binder which incorporates in its spine a centered or eccentrically mounted hook, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,865,445, 3,980,360 and 4,056,296. Alternatively, modified conventional file folders incorporating into their covers a pair of such hooks may be used to loosely assemble stationary or other sheet-form items for center hook suspension filing.
The document storage files just mentioned are intended for the filing of documents which have a sheet-like nature, be they individual pages, accordian-folded printouts, or thin prebound items. Notably, they do not readily accommodate larger bound items, such as books. Further, in the broadest sense, a document is a recorded assemblage of data, and need not take any of these forms. Thus, in computer facilites, data is commonly stored on tape or magnetic disks. While suspension filing may be provided for reels of tape by a tape reel storage band which incorporates a hook, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,935, the storage of books, cassettes, disks, and other such media is typically on flat shelves. Thus, not all types of document may be easily accommodated to suspension storage with prior art files, and mixed media libraries heretofore have often employed both suspension filing systems and regular shelving, with a resultant loss in user convenience since related documents on different media perforce have had to be stored remotely from one another.
Prior art storage files suffer from a number of other disadvantages. Thus, removal of a document from a suspension filing system has generally required the removal of the file from the suspension bar. As adjacent document files may readily overflow into the void previously occupied by the removed file, return of the file has been time consuming, misfiling has been more likely, and missing files have not been readily apparent. A further disadvantage is that center-hook suspension files for bound documents generally attach to the spine of the document and attach the document to the suspension filing system in a spine-up position, obscuring any title on the spine of the document and thus requiring additional, and possibly less convenient, labeling.